


Shoot Me Under The Mistletoe

by WhatTheMillennial



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Explicit Sexual Content, F/F, Gun Violence, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-03
Updated: 2018-12-03
Packaged: 2019-09-06 14:07:18
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,230
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16834132
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WhatTheMillennial/pseuds/WhatTheMillennial
Summary: ‘Merry Christmas, baby,’ the note reads, signed with a blue lipstick stain. Peridot crumples the paper in her palm, tempted to throw the extravagantly wrapped box out the window. But curiosity outweighs her pettiness, and she tugs at the silver bow....***Empire City brings out the good, bad and crazy at Christmas - but for two rivals, it unleashed warfare. Criminal!AU





	Shoot Me Under The Mistletoe

**Author's Note:**

> Taking a quick break from Neon Devils (AGAIN) to work on my Secret Santa (oooooh) and actually write something festive before Christmas. But, as it’s me, of course it’s going to be a thriller. 
> 
> WARNING: Contains strong language, mentions of drugs, strong violence and explicit sexual content. 
> 
> Merry Christmas, darlings. 
> 
> Love, Betty.

[PLAY ME](https://youtu.be/QQRW1aspsRw)

‘Give it up~’

Peridot’s breath is taken by how hard she is slammed up against the wall, head spinning and wrists pinned above it. Lapis’s words purr into her ear like the Devil whispering to Eve.

‘Fuck you,’ she spits back, but her captor only laughs.

‘I’ll have more fun fucking you, unless you give it *up*..’

Peridot knows she doesn’t mean the 500 kilo of cocaine ready to be shipped off to her next job, Lapis interested in something much more valuable.

‘C’mon....let me in.’

Peridot takes blame for it, allowing Lapis to pounce her when she was most vulnerable.

‘I’ll protect you. You know I will.’

{Six Weeks Ago}

‘Hey, morning! How’d it go?’

Amethyst’s cheery greeting only sours Peridot’s mood further, slamming a duffel bag on the floor before Amethyst’s feet and taking a long gulp of her coffee.

‘Another success, as per-fucking usual. Fucking creeps....I hate deliveries to the Agate bitches.’

She flops on the sofa centre to the studio apartment, spacious and lofty. Minimalist and used for business only. Nicknamed the Temple as a joke, sacred and known to only four.

‘They are one of our top clients, don’t be a hater.’

‘I’ll hate all I want! That cloddy fucker Holly runs a shit show! It’s hardly a club...it’s a hole in the ground.’

Amethyst laughs, unzips the duffel bag and begins to unload the $30.k inside. It’s run through the machine to verify, and Peridot closes her heavy eyes, the sound familiar and almost soothing.

Once Amethyst is counted up, Peridot is free to go home and sleep until her night shift, a dull yet dangerous job. She really doesn’t know how she got into this shit, but Rose, her boss, seems to have this shit together, keeping Peridot well-kept and out of student debt.

‘Alllllll right! You’re good, Peri!’

Peridot cracks open one, green eye and huffs.

‘Great. I’m going to go home and *die*.’

‘Enjoy, babe. Drinks tomorrow?’

‘Naturally.’

It’s a bitter September morning, daybreak not even cracked when Peridot steps out into the cold and walking away from the building that hosts a fucking adoption agency. It’s almost hilarious, in a sick sort of way.

Snow has fallen and iced over, Peridot stepping lightly along the sidewalk to the subway to ride five blocks to her apartment, lived in by work-possessed bachelors and rented by stuck up heiresses. It’s nice, and Peridot lives on the 34th floor that comes with an amazing view.

‘Hey there, Peridot, early for you!’

Peridot fakes a smile to the security girl at the desk, her name something Peridot never intends to learn, but she seems to know hers.

The reception area is plush and a diamanté chandelier looms high above. At the desk the security girl waves.

‘How observant of you. Anyway, bye.’

‘Oh, Peridot!’

Peridot’s finger hovers above the elevator button. She sighs and glances over her shoulder.

‘Yes...?

‘I thought you should know, you have a new neighbour,’ the security girl informs her brightly, ‘she seems super nice!’

Peridot scarcely blinks and she turns back to the elevator, stepping in. She forgets about it before the doors even close on the security girls fallen face.

***

Peridot awakens to the usual traffic outside and the slamming of a door outside her apartment. Barely anyone lives up on her floor, not that they could afford it.

She sits up and reaches for a hair tie from her bedside, her blonde hair long and in her face. She supposed she should cut it, but her mother would cry.

Maybe after a breakup, it would go.

She gets out of bed and heads for the kitchen, her skinny reflection passing the mirror briefly before she descends on the kettle and the ground coffee.

She’s halfway into through cooking up waffle batter (cooking her secret art) when the door is beaten up with knocking, a sound that sends shivers up Peridot’s spine. The worst sound in the universe. Company.

Peridot downs the last of her coffee, drops the ladle and goes to answer the door in the plain bra and thong she went to bed in- caring little about modesty. How dare somebody move in and then disturb her! Didn’t rich people hate socialising?

‘Can I help- YOU!?’

Standing on her doorstep, brownies in hand, dressed in a pretty orange dress and blue hair bobbed at her shoulders, Lapis Lazuli, notorious murderer, drug dealer and down-right evil incarnate, was right in front of her.

There was maybe 1 1/2 seconds of stunned silence before Lapis dropped the plate of brownies that landed to be floor with a clatter, and lunges into Peridot, wrestling her to the ground and Peridot gets over her shock quickly enough to deliver a smack to Lapis’s jaw, sending her sprawling.

Lapis recovers and lands a kick to Peridots very visible ribs, awarded with a yelp of pain. Peridot scrambles away and reaches for the batter bowl on the kitchen side, flinging it into Lapis’s direction, who dodged it by a hair, the mixture creating a mess all over her cream carpet.

‘FUCK!’ Peridot grabs a frying pan, ‘Look what you did!’

Lapis laughs and backs up.

‘It’s an improvement!’

Peridot sneers and advances.

‘What are you doing here? Jasper send you or something?’

‘Um, no, moving in! Just my luck you got to be my neighbour-‘ Lapis dips a hand under a skirt and retrieves a switch blade, ‘I can meet my new one when I move your carcass out!’

Titanium meets steel in a ear-splitting shriek, the rival gang members dancing a duel of death- blood spitting from wounds Lapis scores into Peridot’s bony hips and upper arms.

Her victories are short lived when Peridot swings the frying pan just-so, and knocks the switchblade right out of her hand.

‘Damnit!’

‘Die, clod!’

Peridot charges with the pan above her head to try a blow into Lapis’s, but Lapis dives at the last second and trips Peridot up, her arms caught into Lapis’s hands and they collapse into the bed that remains unmade behind them.

In seconds Lapis has Peridot pinned under her, life ready to be taken when Lapis cuts off her air with long, ringed fingers. Gasping, Peridot’s body arches in shock and desperation to breath, her legs shaking and hands clawing at Lapis’s wrists.

Above her, Lapis watches with a fixation in her ocean blue eyes. The fire to kill is slowly dying as she gazes at the flushed expression on Peridot’s face, she’s seen never it up close. It’s pretty. She lowers herself down and inhales.

Peridot smells like something warm, and her hair is perfumed with the ghost of coffee. It’s almost a nostalgic scent, and Lapis can’t help but give in to her desires and kisses Peridot’s cheek while she strangled her half to death.

Peridot is now a quivering body, slowly starting to pass out with a blurred vision, when the cage around her throat releases and she’s free to breathe, taking lungfuls of air and her eyes start to water, embarrassed when they let tears slip.

She goes still as stone when she feels finger tip wipe them away. Lapis smiles down at her. It’s not a kind smile.

‘We’re gunna be friends.’

***

When Lapis finally leaves, Peridot calls a cleaning service, disgusted by the mess. While the staff remove batter from the bedding and chocolate chunks from the carpet, Peridot locked herself in the bathroom and cried, hot, angry tears before running a bath and submerging herself into it.

She’s tempted to call Rose immediately and report Lapis, but ultimately decides against it. Lapis has been known for.....well, being underestimated. Most suppliers in Empire City thought Jasper ran the show, Lapis the pretty face who handled to money. But no- Peridot has seen what Lapis is capable of in the past, and in black market gossip, and she does not want to piss her off anytime soon.

She’ll just have to deal.

***

The first week goes by without much trouble, and by the second Peridot has stopped wearing turtlenecks and is back to t-shirts. She goes to classes, deals Rose’s supply, comes home, avoids Lapis and crashes into bed.

Then one night she stays late to a lecture and the snow has started to fall. She has only her green denim jacket for warmth, and swears profanities into her phone at an Uber when all the roads become blocked.

When she finally gets through her front door her body is frozen, legs and cheeks painfully red from the cold. Her first instinct is to get into bed, stripping her snow-soaked clothes, but when she does it’s unusually warm, and she screams to the top of her lungs when an arm snakes around her waist.

‘WHAT THE FUCK-‘

She tumbled head first to the floor, and Lapis giggles above her, resting her head on her arm.

‘How come when we always meet, you’re naked?’

‘What are you doing in my apartment!! How did you get in here?!’

Lapis shrugs.

‘Rich or poor, locks are all the same.’

Peridot shivers and stands, looking for something to cover up with. She feels scrutinised under Lapis’s watchful eyes.

‘What,’ she repeats while pulling on a robe, ‘are you doing here?’

‘To see you, duh. I think we got off on the wrong foot.’

‘An understatement, I assure you.’

Lapis grins.

‘God, you talk funny.’

‘I talk properly!’

‘You talk like a nerd.’

She blows a raspberry and Peridot feels ready to explode with rage.

‘Get out! Or I swear I’ll-‘

‘You’ll what?’

Lapis kneels on the mattress and loops her arms around Peridot’s waist, dragging her close and resting her head against her chest.

‘You’ll call Rose? Tell her I’ve been terrorising you?’

She talks soft and slow, her embrace tender. It’s sinister, like a lion playing with its food, and Peridot holds still while Lapis snuggles into the fluffy material of her bathrobe.

‘I’d kill every last one of them, you know. I could. If I wanted to.’

Peridot holds her breath when Lapis glances up with a sweet smile.

‘But I won’t, promise.’

‘Then what do you want,’ Peridot heaves, sagging into her arms, ‘unless you’re here to torture me into giving you all our suppliers and all the drugs I have access to.’

‘You have access to your own drugs?’

Peridot grits her teeth.

‘What do you want?’

‘To be your friendly neighbour!’

‘Fuck you.’

Lapis laughs.

‘I’m serious! Isn’t this fun? Rival enemies at work, and when we come home we live next door to each other! It’s poetic.’

‘It’s a sick joke.’

Peridot pushes Lapis away and goes to put on a pot of coffee. She closes her eyes and puts her hands to her face. This is the worst.

The sound of Lapis getting up and wandering about sparks curiosity, Peridot daring a glance in her direction.

Lapis is a beautiful woman. Tanned, dark hair with tinted blue ends to match the colour that is a permanent stain on her lips. She’s taller, with a strong yet lithe frame. She’s also older by ten years, 27, maybe 29? She walks with confidence, dressed so well. Peridot can only guess.

‘I like your place,’ she comments, nodding at the paintings on the walls, and Peridot snaps back to reality.

‘Thanks, I guess.’

‘You like art?’

‘Women were the masters of Renaissance, in my opinion.’

Something in Lapis’s expression changes. Approval, maybe?

‘I agree. Is that what you study? Art history?’

‘Yes.’

‘And interesting, vibrant subject,’ she raises her eyebrows, ‘Stick to drug dealing.’

Peridot scoffs and pours a mug of coffee.

‘It’s not my life, Rose will let me go when I want to go.’

‘You shouldn’t, you’re good at it.’

‘It’s a crime.’

‘And? You’d serve under criminals who run our capitalist society? You could own your own world, you’re already sat on top of it.’

Lapis challenges her, and Peridot is surprised. She’s never been challenged before.

‘Do you want some coffee?’

***  
Life carries on seeming as usual. Classes, dealing, come home. Do it all again.

But now Lapis is there, ready with take-way Starbucks and a debate on how Peridot should run her life. She kisses Peridot goodnight, every night. And Peridot likes it even when she wants to hate it.  
***

The first time Lapis touches her is during an argument, Lapis prying into Peridot leaving Rose’s circle.

‘Just think about it, you’d be an asset.’

‘Rose trusts me! Imagine how bad it would make me look?!? I’d be a traitor in the drug ring!’

‘Which I *own*’

Peridot throws a glass in Lapis’s direction and it smashes against the wall, but Lapis remains unfazed, used to the temper tantrums.

‘Stop that! Stop throwing your power in my face, because I’m not giving you mine! That’s what it is, isn’t it? You’re angry you can control everyone around you but me!’

Lapis advances, a steely look in her eyes.

‘You’re deluded, idiot. You think you have power? I could take you out in a second- and you wouldn’t even know what hit you.’

Peridot stares up at her, lips twitched into a smirk.

‘You’d never.’

‘No. I wouldn’t.’

And then Lapis is kissing her, arms pulling her closer, and Peridot throws her around Lapis’s neck. It starts slow, gentle, the heat building and she audibly gasps when Lapis’s fingers travel up her shirt.

‘Shh,’ Lapis hushes, breaking the kiss to bite down Peridot’s neck, fingers tracing her bra. She huffs against Peridot’s neck and grabs at her hips.

‘Oh fuck this.’

She lifts Peridot into her arms, only to throw onto the bed, tugging off her blouse and advancing upon the younger girl.

They kiss some more, Peridot allowing Lapis to rip away her shirt and almost tear off her bra with lust. She pulls the older woman back down, shoving her tongue down her throat and wraps her legs around her waist, but Lapis only pushes them away to spread her thighs wide, reaching down a hand to trace the wet heat behind soft cotton.

Peridot is sensitive and her breath hitches, head tipping back and Lapis kisses the base of her neck.

‘You’re mine,’ she whispers, circling her fingers before dipping into her underwear, ‘I’ll make you mine.’

She eases two fingers into Peridot’s wet heat, the girl softly wailing beneath her, tugging at the bed sheets.

‘Lapis- please-‘

Lapis smiles evilly, draws her hand away and then shoves back in to the hilt, Peridot letting out screams as she’s fucked mercilessly, hard and steady, Lapis working up to three fingers and never letting up, using her other hand to tease Peridot’s clit slowly, agonisingly.

‘Say you’re mine,’ she hisses, leaning down to catch a nipple in her teeth and bite down, Peridot screaming louder.

‘Say it.’

‘I-I’m-‘

Lapis has her back bending, hips lifting from the bed, their heavy breathing in unison, Lapis ducking her faster, harder than before.

‘Say it!’

‘I’M YOURS! PLEASE- please! Fuck me, I’m yours!’

When she comes Peridot swears she sees blinding light, Lapis working her through the orgasm and kissing her deeply, like she loved her.

‘I’m yours...’

***

Life only becomes harder. She’s sitting alongside Amethyst on the sofa, when Pearl comes storming into the Temple, full of rage.

‘Only fucking Lapis Lazuli and that brute of hers Jasper would take the East Side!’

The news is shocking, the East Side is Rose’s property, but according to Pearl, four clients have been taken by force, two by bribery. It’s a mess, and they’ve lost nearly a million overnight.

Amethyst is instructed by Pearl to run up the accounts, and the two sit behind the laptop, Amethyst typing frantically while Pearl calls their disburses in Beach City.

Peridot gets up and heads for the door. She does not go unnoticed.

‘Peri, where are you going?’

‘I need some air,’ Peridot grits out, ‘Don’t worry Ame, I’ll be back.’

‘Okay, but bring coffee!’

‘You got it.’

***

Empire City is cold and grey, but easily masked by the lights and Christmas decor in shop windows. Once again Peridot has hardly dressed for the weather, skinny jeans and a leather jacket covering a green crop top. She calls a Uber and heads straight to Watermelon Isle Bar, on the East Side.

{Heading to W. Isle. Be there. Now}

10 minutes later the cab pulls up, and Lapis is waiting in at a table in the window. Peridot marches in and sits down before her, ignoring the friendly waiter that tries to greet her. She glares at Lapis.

‘What the fuck are you doing? Rose’s turf, seriously?’

Lapis rolls her eyes and leans back in her chair, legs man-spread in her seat. She’s wearing a silk suit today, navy blue.

‘It’s not personal, dummy. It’s just business.’

‘Like I’d believe that! You have a treaty with us, you’re declaring war.’

Lapis holds her gaze momentarily, then she snaps her fingers for attention, and the waiter practically falls over himself to get to her.

‘Yes, Ms. Lazuli? What can I get you?’

‘Pérignon Vintage,’ she smirks at Peridot, ‘we’re celebrating.’

Peridot scoffs and crosses her arms.

‘Oh fuck off.’

The waiter hurries away, tension so thick it could be cut with a knife. He returns minutes later, and Lapis flaps her hand at him before he can pour their glasses.

‘War isn’t something I want, Peridot,’ Lapis says slowly, grabbing the bottle from the ice bucket and carefully pouring the expensive liquid into Peridot’s glass.

‘I’ve gone through it before, and bless Rose for her pacifism, but I know this is something she’d bear arms for. I’m expecting it.’

‘Then why of Earth would you provoke her?’

‘To show you how easy it is to take her down. You’d perish without her.’

Peridot groans loudly and rubs at her temples. This is becoming beyond ridiculous.

‘So what? You want me to pledge my alliance to you?’

Lapis smiles over the rim of her glass.

‘Exactly.’

‘I refuse.’

‘You won’t.’

‘Id rather break my neck than join you.’

‘You’re mine, you said so yourself.’

Peridot’s expression darkens and she lifts up from her seat and over the table so Lapis doesn’t mistake one word that comes out of her mouth.

‘You listen to me, Lazuli. Whatever strange, fucked up relationship we have ends now. I’m moving out, tomorrow. If you want to take down my friends you’ll have to go through me.’

She downs her glass and grabs the bottle.

‘I’m taking this. And you can go fuck yourself.’

She storms out of the restaurant and opens the door of the first taxi she sees, startling a man in a suit that already sits inside. Before he can say a word Peridot grabs him by the collar and drags him out, butt first into the snow and replaces his spot in the back and slams the door.

‘Yo, lady! You can’t be throwin’ people outta my wheels, the fuck!’

‘I’ll give you two hundred dollars if you shut up and drive me where I tell you.’

The driver blinks in surprise, almost in disbelief, but does as he is told.

Peridot looks out of the window as she is driven away, Lapis still watching. She smiles and tips her glass, Peridot giving her the finger until she’s out of sight.


End file.
